Poor concentration causes all those crashes
where a driver fails to pay proper attention to the situation ahead. Sometimes
the driver might be distracted by a passenger or a mobile phone call, sometimes
the driver may simply be thinking about something else. Safe driving requires
a very high degree of concentration because the situation ahead can change
at any instant. When the situation ahead does change, the driver must notice
the change, decide on a course of action, and implement the course of action
often all within a single second.

Where concentration is poor, it's all too
easy to forget to make a mirror check...

Lowering vehicle speeds can promote poor
concentration.

Errors of judgement

A car drives into a bend far too fast.
The laws of physics mean that the bend simply cannot be negotiated at this
speed and an accident ensues. What really has happened here?

We could say the driver was going too fast;
simple as that. But it's more useful and informative to consider why
the driver was going too fast. He may have reckless disregard for road
traffic laws and his fellow man, but we can almost always assume that he
had planned to negotiate the bend. Entering a bend too fast is an error
of judgement.

A car pulls out to overtake. The driver
mistakenly considers that he had time to complete his overtaking manoeuvre
before the end of the clear straight section of road ahead. He can't and
at the wrong moment an oncoming vehicle appears. Unsafe overtaking is usually
an error of judgement.

Other errors of judgement include:

Too fast in fog

Gap not large enough for vehicle

Gap in traffic closed before arrival

Failure to leave a "time to react" space

Exceeding safe speed

Exceeding available grip

Errors of observation

Sorry mate I didn't see you. Many road
accidents are caused by failure to observe another vehicle or road user
until it is too late to avoid a crash. This differs from poor concentration
(which sometimes causes not looking), in that in these cases driver
usually look but do not see.

Countless thousands of motorcyclists have
been injured by car drivers simply driving into their path. Sometimes this
is because the motorcyclist was behind the car's windscreen pillar at the
moment when the car driver glanced once to see if the road was clear. There
is also a blind spot in the human eye where the optic nerve joins the retina
and sometimes the unseen road user might have been in the blind spot when
the glance check was made. (see this web
page)

It would be easy to alert drivers to these
potential problems, but precious little effort is made and few drivers
know about them. The solution is that a glance check is usually insufficient,
and experienced drivers use a longer period of observation. Better yet
is to make several distinct and separate observations. SafeSpeed visitor
Martin Nicholas put it like this: "I was taught, and have found to be true,
that two short looks beat one long look. Partly to allow your eyes to return
to the view ahead and partly because you get a chance to confirm or disprove
what you thought was happening on your first look. For example, judging
'speed of approach' is easier with two half-second looks one second apart
than with a single one second look."

There is also a distraction effect. Something
distant and highly visible may distract the eye from observing something
closer but less highly visible. You've probably had this when planning
to overtake in poorer light, you've seen and planned for the distant car
showing dipped headlights, only to later notice a nearer dark green car
without lights. If you haven't yet, you probably will. (owners of dark
coloured cars take note...)

Sometimes a driver will think he has seen
where the road goes and plan to drive ahead. He might find out too late
that he failed to observe the road ahead properly and now has no time left
to adjust his course or speed.

Inexperienced drivers are noticeably weaker
at good observation.

Dangerous attitudes

A stolen car speeds through a red light.
An old man continues to drive with increasingly poor eyesight. A young
person neglects essential tyre and brake maintenance. A boy racer thinks
nothing of forcing others vehicles to brake or swerve.

Safe driving only comes after a responsible
attitude and a calm approach. You know it makes sense!

Very few real world accidents are caused
by speed. The vast majority are caused by s.p.e.e.d. Although the concept
behind this page is amusing the subject and the claims are deadly serious.
These are the real major causes of modern road accidents and can
all be addressed with training, publicity and efforts to foster good attitude
in drivers. They cannot be addressed with more speed cameras.

Comments

Comments on the above are welcome. If there
is a demand we will create a comments page or add to the text on this page.
We will be delighted to publish all suitable emails including those whose
content we disagree with. Email
comment.

The contents of this page are original
and copyright safespeed and Paul Smith 2002. Do not reproduce without permission.
First Published 24th August 2002.